Sunil Shaunak is out to prove that academics can develop medicines for a fraction of what Big Pharma spends. His model is simple: Concoct a compound that resembles a
patented drug, keeping it different enough to avoid legal problems. Then fund a startup with philanthropic grants, replacing every stage of traditional drugmaking with outsourced
alternatives. His small biotech, PolyTherics, created a new hepatitis C medicine, which will undergo final testing this year. If it works, poor nations will have a hep C injection
that costs $3 a pop rather than the current $200. --J.S.